{"id":1718,"date":"2014-12-16T17:56:23","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T22:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=1718"},"modified":"2014-12-16T18:10:52","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T23:10:52","slug":"poem-metings-i-would-rather-do-without","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/16\/poem-metings-i-would-rather-do-without\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: Metings, I’d Rather Do Without"},"content":{"rendered":"

I listen<\/strong>
\nTo that which speaks<\/strong>
\nA bigger <\/strong>
\nIn feeleds of dreams<\/strong>
\nWanting more<\/strong>
\nThen words<\/strong>
\nAloft from fences<\/strong>
\nOf unsatisfying breadth<\/strong>
\nAnd stealy calculation<\/strong>
\nDis passionate mines<\/strong>
\nAs inevitable ballbusters<\/strong>
\nDescending from bona fide guise<\/strong>
\nEven handed lines<\/strong>
\nPowerless as me pick-up<\/strong>
\nAs I have not<\/strong>
\nThere be little left<\/strong>
\nOf right<\/strong>
\nAnd wrong<\/strong>
\nTargeted means<\/strong>
\nAs I am<\/strong>
\nMade to feel<\/strong>
\nThat I have<\/strong>
\nGone nuts<\/strong>
\nSow detached<\/strong>
\nOver looking<\/strong>
\nMy groan<\/strong>
\nUp cast<\/strong>
\nFor what have wee<\/strong>
\nTo sphere<\/strong>
\nOn earth<\/strong>
\nLike broken vassals<\/strong>
\nWhat have I too loose<\/strong>
\nAs a flea wagging doggedly<\/strong>
\nIn treating me too stay<\/strong>
\nAs a thorn in my pause<\/strong>
\nAs if I was lyin’<\/strong>
\nOr some thing<\/strong>
\nCrying out<\/strong>
\nGive it arrest<\/strong>
\nOnly wonting<\/strong>
\nHang round<\/strong>
\nLike sum constellation price<\/strong>
\nFor nebulous reasons<\/strong>
\nOrbit<\/strong>
\nThe bull it points<\/strong>
\nForsake of the cause<\/strong>
\nProfessoring each reaction err he<\/strong>
\nAs if<\/strong>
\nI am<\/strong>
\nMissing inaction<\/strong>
\nAnd it’s time<\/strong>
\nTo grow a pare<\/strong>
\nSeceding where others have flailed<\/strong>
\nMore than a head<\/strong>
\nOf their times<\/strong>
\nBoosting their future<\/strong>
\nFor this is how<\/strong>
\nThey roll<\/strong>
\nOff the curve<\/strong>
\nInto the streets<\/strong>
\nOverwhelming every buy way<\/strong>
\nAnd what have anew<\/strong>
\nThorough fair for all<\/strong>
\nAnd rout in justice<\/strong>
\nAs we due it owed school<\/strong>
\nWhere truth metes feat<\/strong>
\nIn tuition<\/strong>
\nOf life<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m publishing this poem and blog post instead of going to a meeting.\u00a0 I’m not big on meetings.\u00a0 And I’m getting smaller with each passing day.\u00a0 About the only meetings I go to are activists planning one thing or the other.\u00a0 I tend to avoid even these meetings.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I generally find them unsatisfying.\u00a0 Fortunately, the outcomes of these meetings are not sorely changed without my presents. Over the last year or so, after the occasional meeting, I have quipped that I only go to a meeting once a season just to remind myself why I don’t go to meetings.\u00a0 I have been to countless meetings in my life, as a recovering professional planner.\u00a0 These activist meetings fare above the average level of meeting satisfaction — though that might not be setting the bar very high.\u00a0 This situation is captured by another saying of mine: that isn’t beneath me; it’s behind me.<\/p>\n

Of course, when I refer to meetings, I mean formal<\/em> meetings.\u00a0 I like meeting with people, just more informally.\u00a0 I like planning, more like conspiring, for activist actions.\u00a0 I’d rather meet and conspire with activists at actions or in social settings without any driving agenda.\u00a0 Or, afterwards, just catch the gist of what may been accomplished, in a few moments.\u00a0 Then, see how I might participate.\u00a0 I find myself on a steady path of wanting to live more organically; that is, with a minimum of man-made organizational structures.\u00a0 My bullshit meter has become quite powerful.\u00a0 I find that formal meetings, by either design or effect, draw out our more base instincts of wanting power\/influence and control over others.\u00a0 This tendency enmeshed with what I view as an over-intellectualization of the issues at hand poisons my experience.\u00a0 Of course, I am a recovering abstract intellectualist; and I deliberately practice avoiding taking that first proverbial drink of the ever-sought perfected ideology or strategy.\u00a0 I feel that I have found some balance between my head and my heart.\u00a0 I find most meetings stifling to my heart.\u00a0 My deepest yearnings are for our broken hearts to pour into the streets for the healing of the world.\u00a0 I suppose this is way too messy for the powers that be.\u00a0 I have studied the ways of personal and social change for my whole adult life, and with increasing frequency my heart overturns my distinguished head.\u00a0 I guess that am slowly gaining my anarchist credentials, which, of course, means not relying on credentials.\u00a0 I am deeply intrigued in exploring collective action without relying on cumbersome formal power.\u00a0 I am finding increasing peace on the margins of power, even the margins of activists’ power.\u00a0 I strongly suspect that nurturing the ability to sustain peace even at the margins of formal power is, in fact, a form of informal power of which humans could use more.\u00a0 May you be empowered to follow your dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I listen To that which speaks A bigger In feeleds of dreams Wanting more Then words Aloft from fences Of unsatisfying breadth And stealy calculation Dis passionate mines As inevitable ballbusters Descending from bona fide guise Even handed lines Powerless … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,57,9,15],"tags":[400,786,397,341,393,428,635,497,431,473,532,402,359,494,658,94,110,114,529,421],"class_list":["post-1718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-top-pun","category-peace","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-balance","tag-bullshit","tag-change","tag-control","tag-dreams","tag-experience","tag-future","tag-healing","tag-heart","tag-ideology","tag-intellect","tag-justice","tag-life","tag-passion","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-power","tag-powers-that-be","tag-time","tag-truth"],"yoast_head":"\nPOEM: Metings, I'd Rather Do Without | About Top Pun, Peace, Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun's Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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